Reviews

The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

ronpayne's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

hazelmort's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

800slim's review against another edition

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4.0

two words: space elevator....

short plot description: in the not so far future a very determined engineer wants to build Earth's first space elevator on the site were about 2000 years earlier a king build another marvel of engineering but has to overcome many obstacles, both scientific and political...

my thoughts: Clarke at his best. Science is sound as always but also presented in a non-boring fashion, the subplot regarding the building of the palace 2000 years early is interesting, the characters don't annoy me in the way they sometimes do in a Clarke novel. Only the subplot regarding alien visitors (similar to the first Rama) feels tacked on and it seems to me that Clarke used this device only for some preaching of his opinions.

All in all a very good book for everyone who likes science based sci-fi

vsgayatri's review against another edition

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4.0

Clarke is definitely a skilled author, one of the big three of science fiction. However, this book simply does not leave as big an impact on the reader as his short stories.

manuphoto's review against another edition

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adventurous informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Although well conceived and executed, The Fountains of Paradise is not my favourite Arthur C. Clarke novel. 

I like how he describes the different cultural, political and technical challenges in attempting to build a space elevator, but I had some issues with the characters. Morgan is pretty much the only one who gets decent treatment and he’s not that interesting to follow.

Although the last third of the novel is more compelling it felt forced to me. It didn’t flow as well as other novels by Clarke.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this book and I think it’s worth reading, but it think it’s only “good” not “great”. I enjoy hard science fiction and there is some of that here, but for some reason I had a harder time connecting with it that I thought I would.

All that being said, Clarke remains an excellent writer. The cultural passages are clearly better “felt” than the technical ones and you can see that he wanted to convey a message on the importance of respect, understanding and curiosity regarding other cultures. That can only be lauded. 

Also, there is a whole discussion about religion, put in the context of first contact with aliens. It was interesting but felt quite underdeveloped, I’m not exactly sure why it was included in this novel, it almost felt like an afterthought, even though the subject was dear to Clarke from what I understand.

arf88's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is less about building a space tower, and more about the the hurdles needed to be jumped when building a space tower.

There's some interesting characters in this, and while there's no great "character building" moments, I never felt that they were cardboard cutouts. Saying that, anyone who reads books for the characters is probably going to be disappointed.

The plot was simple but had lots of entertaining elements, with the random "history" of the island coming back to relevance in interesting ways. Although, I can't be the only one who knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as the legend of the butterflies was brought up, and the weather monk then decided to wander off. It's not like Clarke to be predictable, but it did make for an amazing part of the book, so the obvious foreshadowing can be forgiven.

I think of all of Clarke's books I've read, this is the one where his love of science most shines through, and it's got me interested enough to start googling about the realistic future of space lifts.

professorfate's review against another edition

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3.0

As I think I mentioned in my review for “Childhood’s End,” my interest in reading Clarke was spurred by an episode of “Prophets of Science Fiction” on the Science Channel. This was another book they talked about in that episode (the third, “2001: A Space Odyssey,” is also on loan from the library and I will probably be starting it this week sometime). Unlike that book, however, this one just didn’t quite work for me.

The premise is that an architect designs and then builds a “Space Elevator,” a tower with four belts made of very thin carbon filaments that extends a quarter of a million kilometers up from an equatorial island into space. The island is home to a sacred monastery that is over two thousand years old: the residents of the monastery get driven out in some way because of some sort of prophecy that I didn’t quite understand. As the tower is nearing completion, there is an explosion which strands a car six hundred miles up and the architect has to go up and rescue the people inside.

The concept of the “Space Elevator” is interesting, but I didn’t find the explanation of the thing sufficient: I could understand the need to move a large body into a geo-synchronous orbit to anchor the top of the tower to. But even with nano-technologically built materials, wouldn’t a tower that tall be WAY too heavy to stay anchored or erect on earth? Also, I never quite got why it was built. Was it a case of “because we can” or was there some other reason (like further exploration of space, etc.)? Plus in the first half of the book, there were a lot of “science vs. religion” quotes that didn’t really fit in.

I’m glad I read it, though.

tanyastrow's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

3.75

theaurochs's review against another edition

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4.0

Who knew that civil engineering could be so exciting?
This is a really interesting novel, that is immense in scope and yet subtle in execution (mostly). It paints the story of one man's quest to build what is effectively the greatest bridge humankind has ever seen: a space elevator. Here the idea is laid out in great but accessible detail for the first time; previously it had been squarely in the realm of idealistic engineers and academics. This does give the novel the feel of an engineering manifesto only vaguely disguised as a story, but honestly I found this very endearing. I can however see how it would come across as dry, or even tedious, if (somehow) you fail to be impressed by the imagination at play.
Clarke contrasts his not-too-distant future delightfully with the tale of an early Sri-Lankan king who dreams of building colossal pleasure-gardens at the top of a mountain. This idea of humanity constantly dreaming towards the stars is neat, and gives the book some philosophical heft that might otherwise have been missing.
For me personally it loses the final fifth star for actually having too much action in the last act of the book; it becomes a little contrived and over-dramatic, and feels a little at odds with the bureaucratic nature of what had gone before.
There are some fantastic asides to the main narrative of the space elevator; including nice insights into religion through the ages, how humans would deal with first contact, and a bizarrely specific correct prediction about how the internet will affect birthday greetings.
Clarke really was a visionary, and this book is a real testament to his genius while actually having human characters you can get behind, unlike some of his earlier work. A must read for fans of hard sci-fi.

infinispace's review

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4.0

Full review here: http://infinispace.net/2016/08/the-fountains-of-paradise-review/